Tracing the history of Uganda’s first Constitution

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This month, New Vision will be publishing a series of articles to celebrate 30 years of the 1995 Constitution, detailing the factors that has made it stand the test of time, unlike the earlier ones that were shortlived. Today, we trace the origins of Uganda’s first Constitution.

After the end of World War II in 1945, many parts of Africa, Uganda inclusive, started agitating for independence. In Uganda, the biggest agitation manifested through the Bataka riot of April 25, 1949.

The riots targeted colonial administrators and Asians who were mainly traders. The colonial administration crushed it with troop reinforcements from Kenya. Over 1,400 Ugandans were arrested, and tens were shot.

Around this time, Edward Mutesa II had just been crowned Kabaka of Buganda and had started pressing the colonial government for more powers over his kingdom. He opposed the attempt to create a federated East Africa.

Mutesa’s agitation for autonomy climaxed on November 30, 1953, when Governor Sir Andrew Cohen deposed him and sent him to exile in London for two years. On October 17, 1955, he returned from exile to a heroic welcome in Buganda.

The following day, on October 18, 1955, he signed the famous Namirembe Agreement with the colonial government. The agreement made him a constitutional monarch and spelt Buganda’s status under the Uganda protectorate.

The agreement also mapped out the road to Uganda’s self-rule by proposing the first direct election of representatives to the Legislative Council and appointment of a committee that would collect Ugandans’ views about independence.

First elections

In his book, A political history of Uganda, Prof Samwiri Karugire states that when the colonial government announced that there would be direct election of representatives to the Legislative Council, Mutesa immediately flew to London to persuade the colonial secretary to postpone them.

When the elections were held on October 20-24, 1958, Buganda boycotted them, but they won by the Uganda National Congress.

With elections over, the next item on the agenda for the colonial governor was the appointment of a commission to gather views on the system of government that Ugandans wanted in their new independent nation. On February 4, 1959, Governor Cohen’s successor Frederick Crawford appointed the famous Constitutional Committee led by colonial administrator John Wild.

The committee comprised two Asians, 11 Africans and three Europeans. Its members were: John Wild (chairperson), Cuthbert Obwangor, A.A. Baerlein, Milton Obote, T.B. Bazarrabusa, K. Ingram, H.K. Jaffer, C.B. Katiti, Erisa Kironde, Balaki Kirya, G.B.K. Magezi, B.J. Mukasa, William Nadiope, G. Oda, C.K. Patel and Frank Kalimuzo (secretary). Some of its members were drawn from the newly elected legislative council (Legco).

Buganda becomes uncomfortable

The Constitutional Committee, which was also known as the Wild Committee, collected views and handed it to the governor on December 5, 1959. In his book, The desecration of My Kingdom, Mutesa writes that Buganda was not happy with the contents of the report.

He wrote that to Buganda, the committee’s report contained everything that they feared – it was heavily in favour of direct elections and a unitary state.

“When the Constitutional Committee reported, among other things, a plan for a unitary state with direct election to the National Assembly and with no safeguards for Buganda: in fact, it had all that we wished to avoid,” Mutesa stated. 

To address Buganda’s fears, Reginald Maudling, the British secretary of state for the colonies, set up another team known as the relations committee or Munster Commission on December 15, 1960. It was led by Earl of Munster (Geoffrey William Richard Hugh FitzClarence) and its purpose was to moderate Buganda’s relationship with the rest of Uganda. Meanwhile, the colonial governor was bent on organising independence elections.

1961 elections

On March 1, 1961, amidst a lot of opposition from Buganda, the colonial government held the first general election which was won by the Democratic Party (DP) under the leadership of Ben Kiwanuka.

Because of Buganda’s boycott, Kiwanuka, as chief minister struggled with gaining legitimacy to lead Uganda.

Apart from being boycotted, the election widened the wedge between Muteesa and Kiwanuka. Kiwanuka supported a unitary state and direct elections, which Mutesa and Buganda opposed. Mutesa was not happy with Kiwanuka’s new position as Uganda’s chief minister.

Mutesa described Kiwanuka as “puffed up with pride and success. Until then, I had seen him as a friend from whom I had drifted apart. Now he became intolerable. He made personal attacks on me.”

In June 1961, the Munster or relations committee that had been set up to moderate relations between Buganda and the rest of Uganda handed over its report to the governor and it was on its basis that the Lancaster House Conference in London was convened, starting September 18, 1961 up to October 9, 1961, mainly to discuss the pillars of the independent state of Uganda.

But before the Lancaster Conference of 1961, a young politician known as Milton Obote representing Lango district had led a breakaway faction of UNC into a union with Uganda People’s Union of William Rwetsiba to form the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).

The UPC had quickly gained popularity outside Buganda. In Buganda, parties were not popular because the natives were comfortable with Kabaka at the top.

As representatives of Uganda prepared for the Lancaster Conference, Obote reached out to Buganda with a proposal for an alliance to help it defeat Kiwanuka and his DP. 

First Obote-Mutesa meeting

According to Mutesa, his first meeting with Obote was after the March 1961 election and arranged by his mutual friends Abu Mayanja and Daudi Ochieng.

“I took Obote Muteesa’s palace in Bamunanika. His first impression of Obote? “He was very friendly, almost, almost obsequious. We talked and for a few weeks, he sent me letters… An alliance between Buganda and UPC was suggested, with innumerable promises of respect for our position after independence… Though I did not like him, for he is not a particularly likeable man.”

In an interview, the late Mayanja said Obote humbled himself, greeted the King, who was 35, just a year older.

“The two chatted for about three hours from 9:00pm and up to midnight when we left the palace in my car,” Mayanja said.

Mutesa later wrote that said his entire inner circle agreed to the alliance except the uncompromising Katikkiro Michael Kintu.

After reaching a deal with Obote, Buganda felt a bit comfortable in the rest of Uganda and with obstacle out of the way, the colonial government organised the Lancaster Conference, drawing delegates from the key administrative areas of Uganda to agree on the system of government for Uganda.